Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Ilkley, England

The dreaded 335-mile journey from Aberdeen to Ilkley in West Yorkshire was not as torturous I had been expecting.

In fact, the hardest part of the first 100 miles to our overnight stop was the 37-point turn on the drive of our Dutch hosts as we tried to avoid backing over their dog BJ.

When we're in the car, a lot of our time is spent making and fielding telephone calls to and from London, but yesterday it was just me, producer Garth and his copy of the best electronic .

We eventually arrived in Ilkley rather later than planned. By the time we had parked up, it was 1145 in the morning and I was due on air 45 minutes later.

We were greeted by the cream-coloured Big Top of Billy Smart's Circus, which was located in a field surrounded by the caravans of the multi-national performers. The full troope, minus the Kazakhstan acrobat, were waiting for us inside.

We then met Frenchman Alex, whose act involves dangling from a 50ft high piece of silk by his little toe, before meeting Adrian, the Italian trapeze artist, and Romanian Alex, a fireman who balances on a 20ft ladder in a manner that would certainly result in a domestic accident if you tried it yourself.

All three needed little encouragement to start an argument about who would take second place in behind the Netherlands.

Russian Alina, who two hours later was still hanging by her nashers from the highest point of the tent, and Spanish illusionist assistant Sonia were a little more dignified about their team's relative merits in .

It was almost inevitable that I would be roped in (almost literally), and it wasn't long before I did a turn as Presto the illusionist's assistant. To be honest, I'm not sure being made to vanish live on the radio really worked, but it did mean that I could take the next two hours off to marvel at the circus's matinee performance.

Producer Garth videoed one of Presto's magic tricks and you can watch it by clicking .

to follow Clem's route around the UK..